A Celebrity Who Takes the Clicking, Keeps On Ticking

In a celebrity-starved world, Roger Federer gets tennis in the game. He makes the racket for his sport, just as Tiger Woods is the driver for his.

Even if rain hadn’t disrupted most of the matches Friday at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, Federer still would have been the big show. And he won’t even play until Sunday.

Russian Marat Safin, one of the best players in the world, the man who beat Federer in the 2005 Australian Open final, and an interesting, charismatic person, won a match and barely created a ripple.

American Lindsay Davenport, a local star from Laguna Beach, long a No. 1 player, winner of three titles in Grand Slam events and a friendly, engaging person, blasted another young American off the court in a 6-0, 6-0 whipping and barely created a ripple.

Federer meandered into a press gathering, dressed in a drab gray sweatshirt and dirty jeans, hair slightly disheveled. And suddenly, you had the Beatles.

It was standing room only. From all corners, cameras buzzed, whirred and clicked. Federer smiles. Buzz, whir, click. Federer gestures. Buzz, whir, click.

It was 15 minutes of “Access Hollywood” and, as an afterthought, some questions about tennis.

There are a couple of dozen mainstream newspapers and broadcast outlets from the desert to Los Angeles, and there were twice that many bodies in the room. Federer is far from a local story. His attraction is both Tennis magazine and People magazine. He is from Switzerland, but tennis has given him to the world. And he has given back, willingly and comfortably.

His results alone might put him on his pedestal.

When he won the Australian Open in January, it was his seventh Grand Slam title. At 24, he’s already halfway to Pete Sampras’ record.

More astounding, though, is what he has done since the beginning of 2004. In that span, his record is 117-11. He has won 24 tour titles, including six of the last nine Grand Slam events, and recently passed Bjorn Borg for fifth place for length of stay at No. 1, currently 110 weeks.

Yet he has remained accessible, comfortable with his role as the guy wearing the crown. He is not a great quote, but he is not dull. He has a presence, not a swagger.

Perhaps the most interesting/insightful thing he said Friday was that, for a while, when somebody had a winning record against him, he took it personally.

“I thought they were not nice people,” he said, smiling over his own pettiness. “I look at things more relaxed now.”

Tour officials say they have never had anybody more willing to promote the game, more willing to cooperate with tournament officials or sponsors or reporters from pint-sized papers or 10-watt stations. While he is doing that, he maintains a measure of realism and humility.

“I’m excited” to be playing here, he said, “but at the same time, I feel the pressure, of course.”

After the English version of his news conference ended, he did another in German. When you are Roger Federer, the globe is your stage.